Chapter 3 (110)
Distinction XXIX | 125 from the cross,'* but the joinings of minds are shown to be holier than those of bodies."''—But this is a complicated question, nor can it be fully resolved by us as we move to other matters.
11. For we are troubled by those words above: "He commands that you love your enemies not with all your power, nor as yourself, but simply: for it suffices that we love them, and not hold them in hate.'"°—This is not to be understood as if it sufficed to love your enemies, and not as yourself, because you must love all, both friends and enemies, as yourself. But in order to show the degrees of loving God, our neighbour, and our enemy, who nonetheless is our neighbour, 'the Lord sets out what is proper to each,' saying: Love God with all your power, and your neighbour as yourself*' he does not say [of the latter] with all your power, in order to show that our neighbour is to be loved less than God. And so he says: Love your enemies," without adding with all your power, nor as yourself, 'but simply: for it suffices that we love them, and not hold them in hate': that is, it suffices to say that we love them and do not have them in hate; not that we must not love them as ourselves, because they are our neighbours; but it suffices if we love them less than our other neighbours: which the manner of expression indicates.
12. QUESTION.—AUGUSTINE, IN THE BOOK OF RETRACTATIONS. It is also
usual to ask "why the Lord would command that we love our enemies," where elsewhere he commands that we hold in hate our parents and children."**°—To which it must be said that two things are to be loved in a man: nature and virtue; but vice and sin are to be hated. And so parents, insofar as they are evil, are to be hated; and enemies are to be loved, insofar as they are human beings. "And so let us love our enemies who gain God's kingdom, and let us hate our relatives, if they keep us from God's kingdom";"* and in everyone in common let us love the nature which God made.
Chapter 3 (110) 1. ON THE DEGREES OF CHARITY. It is to be noted that there are different degrees of charity: for there is a beginning charity, a progressing one, a perfect one, and a most perfect one.—AUGUSTINE, ON THE EPISTLE OF Hs GLB Ali ial RT oy Ordinary gloss, on Lk. 8, 20.
0 Above, n5.
*IMk. 12, 30-31.
2M 5. AA; LE: G6, 27.
23Mt. 5, 44.
Lod, 26; *> Augustine, Retractationes, bk 1 c19 n5.
Ibid.
126 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
JOHN. Hence Augustine: "This is perfect charity: that one is prepared even to die for his brothers. But is it already entirely perfect, as soon as it is born? No. It is born so that it may be made perfect; when born, it is nourished; when nourished, it is strengthened; when strengthened, it is perfected; when it has come to perfection, it says: J desire to be dissolved,"' etc." Here the progress and perfection of charity is clearly indicated.
2. Truth too commends this perfection of charity, saying: No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his friends.' And this is said with reference to the work of love, because there is no greater act of love than to lay down one's life for others. Do not let it trouble you that he says for his friends, for he who lays down his life for his friends lays it down for his enemies too, so that they too may become friends.
DISTINCTION XXX
Chapter | (111)
1. WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO LOVE FRIENDS THAN ENEMIES, AND VICE
VERSA. Here it is usual to ask what is better and of greater merit, to love friends or to love enemies.—But this comparison is tangled. For if the love 'of friends only' is compared to the love 'of friends, and also of enemies,' the answer is very clear. But if it is asked which of these loves is greater in one particular man, who loves both a friend and an enemy, then the answer is obscure. What is at issue here is a movement of the mind, as to which it is not easy for us to form a judgement whether one and the same movement is toward the friend and the enemy, but is more intense toward the friend; or whether there are two: one, which is called more difficult, toward the enemy; the other toward the friend, and this seems more fervent. Nor is it unsuitable to regard as better the one which is more fervent. But if it is one and the same, then it is not inappropriate to esteem it as better when it is more ardent.
2. AUGUSTINE, IN THE ENCHIRIDION. But Augustine appears to feel that it is a greater thing to love an enemy than a friend. He says that it pertains to those who are perfect to love one's enemies and to do them good, nor is this achieved by as many people as have their prayer heard when they say in the Lord's prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.'
For he says that that promise is fulfilled by many who do not love their enemies. He speaks as follows: "It is a great thing to wish well and to do
'Phil 1,23.
*Augustine, /n I Ioannis 3, 9, tr. 5 n4. ahs Tn pad Wee 'Mt. 6, 12.
Distinction
XXX | 127
good to one who has done no evil to you. It is a much greater thing, and it pertains to the most magnificent goodness, to love your enemy also, and always to wish well to and, if possible, to do good to one who wishes you ill and, if he can, does you harm. In this, you hear Jesus saying: Love your enemies, and do good to them who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you.' But this only pertains to the perfect children of God, and although every believer ought to strive for it and, by prayer to the Lord and earnest struggle with himself, bring the human soul to this feeling, yet such a great good is not for such a multitude as we believe are heard when they say in prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' Without doubt, the words of this promise are fulfilled, if a man who has not yet made progress to the point of loving his enemy, when asked for forgiveness by one who has sinned against him, does forgive him from his heart. He also desires forgiveness for himself, when he prays: as we forgive our debtors."*—'But he who asks forgiveness of the man against whom he has sinned, if he is moved by his sin to ask forgiveness, is not to be regarded as an enemy, in the sense of its being as difficult to love him now as it was when he was actively inimical. And he who does not forgive another who repents of his sin and asks forgiveness ought not to suppose that his own sins are forgiven by God, for the Truth cannot lie. When he taught us this prayer, he also commended this sentence contained in it, saying: Jf you forgive men their sins, your Father will also forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive, neither will your
Father forgive you your sins.""* 3. See, here it seems that what we said earlier is true, namely that it is a greater virtue to love and do good to one's enemy than to one who has done us no evil, or who is a friend.—Someone may not be willing to simply grant this, saying: a friend is loved more intensely than an enemy, and so the one is loved better than the other; if so, let him determine these things in accordance with the understanding set out earlier,' repeating the comparison made there between the love by which a friend only is loved, and one by which a friend and an enemy are loved.
4. But what follows troubles us more, namely that he says that 'to love one's enemies is not for such a multitude as are heard when they say in prayer: Forgive us our debts,' etc., where he gives it to be understood that someone who does not love his enemy has his sins forgiven by God, so long as he forgives the brother who has sinned against him and has asked
Mins, 44: ch. Lk: 6, 27:
3Mt. 6, 12.
'Augustine, Enchiridion, 73.
SMt. 6, 14-15.
°Augustine, Enchiridion, c74.
TAbove, n2.